Vertical Roll   00:19:37 1972
In this well-known early tape, Jonas manipulates the grammar of the camera to create the sense of a grossly disturbed physical space. The space functions as a metaphor for the unstable identity of the costumed and masked female figure roaming the screen, negotiating the rolling barrier of the screen's bottom edge. "[Making] use of a jarring rhythmic technique to develop a sense of fragmentation, Vertical Roll uses a common television set malfunction of the same name to establish a constantly shifting stage for the actions that relate both to the nature of the image and to the artist's projected psychological state." —David Ross, "Joan Jonas's Videotapes" in Joan Jonas: Scripts and Descriptions, 1968-1982, ed. Douglas Crimp (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983) This title was in the original Castelli-Sonnabend video art collection. Also available on: Anthology: Surveying the First Decade	Biography of Joan Jonas Titles by Joan Jonas: Disturbances Double Lunar Dogs I Want to Live in the Country (And Other Romances) Left Side Right Side Upside Down and Backwards Vertical Roll Waltz Work by Joan Jonas also appears on: Series: Point of View: An Anthology of the Moving Image Anthology: Surveying the First Decade